Cardiff and Vale College Retains Prestigious Leaders in Diversity Gold Status
The award reflects the work it does to promote Fairness, Respect, Equality, Diversity, Inclusivity and Engagement (FREDIE) within the communities it serves.
The re-accreditation report by the National Centre for Diversity identified the college's work undertaken to advance inclusivity reaching beyond its walls, influencing work across Wales and beyond.
It noted that this work has achieved national recognition, including by the Association of Colleges (AoC) in relation to CAVC's work on Race Equality and support in this area for the Further Education sector. It concluded that FREDIE is clearly embedded into the college across both staff and learner provision, and in outreach work.
The inspection report also found that the college's positive influence spans not just further education, but with Higher Education and ongoing partnership work with the Welsh Government. It added that the college has extensive community and business links and uses its expertise and knowledge to 'influence and cascade across the wider landscape'.
Last year the college moved from third to second place in the Leaders in Diversity Top 100 Inclusive Employers Index.
CAVC represents one of the most vibrant and diverse communities in Wales. It is also the largest provider of English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) course in Wales, making it well placed to reach out to Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities across the Capital Region and beyond.
CAVC Group Chief Executive Mike James is Chair of the Colleges Wales Equality and Diversity Group and in 2022 the college became the first college in Wales to become affiliated with the Black Leadership Group.
In 2022 CAVC also won an AoC UK-wide Beacon Award for its innovative work to embrace equality and inclusion, and a WorldSkills UK Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Ambassador Award.
ESOL Cancer Awareness, a partnership between CAVC and Velindre Cancer Centre, was the UK's first Health and Cancer Awareness resource for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities when it launched in 2018.
More recently, CAVC has been working with the Welsh Government, leading on a project to develop of anti-racist curriculum modules in the FE sector. The curriculum is in the form of a metaverse, providing an accessible and immersive learning experience developed and produced in collaboration with minority ethnic experts from schools, colleges, universities and third parties.
Cardiff and Vale College Principal Sharon James-Evans said:
'We are absolutely delighted to retained National Centre for Diversity's prestigious gold status.
'As the college that serves one of the most diverse and vibrant communities in Wales, we are hugely proud of this result. It means a lot to us because we believe ourselves to be at the heart of the communities we serve and that all students and college colleagues are part of the CAVC Community.
'This is a testament to the people right across the college who work so hard to ensure that CAVC takes an ell-encompassing approach to managing equality, diversion and inclusion across all we do and I'd like to thank them all for that.'
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